By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | The indictment this week of prominent Republican Rep. Jim Merrill has cast another pall on a General Assembly so fraught with challenges that some wonder if anything much will get done in 2017.
Real progress, they say, doesn’t need another stumbling block from lawmakers constantly looking over their shoulders, perhaps reluctant to do much as a Statehouse corruption probe is sure to widen. First came the 2014 downfall of former House Speaker Bobby Harrell of Charleston. Now comes Merrill’s indictment on 30 charges.
But others point to the plentiful, good people in the legislature who will treat what’s happening now as a hiccup. Our state, they say, will keep moving forward on tax reform, pension reform and more money for state highways.
Regardless, lawmakers would like any other corruption-related developments to be announced before January’s session arrives. If integrity questions hang in the air for weeks – as they did in the early 1990s in the Statehouse sting known as Operation Lost Trust — forward movement could be fleeting.
“The House came to a halt when some of that stuff was going on,” one former legislator recalled this week. “That group sucked a lot of oxygen out of the air waiting for the next shoe to drop.”
In Lost Trust, federal officials indicted 28 legislators and lobbyists on corruption charges stemming from a sting that involved lawmakers taking as little as $300 in return for pledges to support a bill to legalize gambling on horse racing. When all was said and done, 27 of the 28 pleaded guilty or were found guilty.
During the turmoil, state lawmakers overhauled lax state ethics laws to thwart a culture of corruption. They voted to bar lobbyists, who once cozied up to legislators with dinners, booze and trips, from being able to donate to campaigns or even buy a cup of coffee for legislators.
As years passed, loopholes developed. Rules got stretched. Coziness returned in new guises. Ethics reform proponents started calling for revamping the rules, once considered a model for state legislatures. But thanks to national trends for accountability and transparency, other states passed tougher rules. But improved ethics standards seemed to bypass South Carolina as bills died after much agonized debate.
The League of Women Voters’ Lynn Teague of Columbia wrote this in Statehouse Report after reform measures failed in 2015: “Without reform, secret ‘consulting fees’ will continue to buy the support of our officials. Without reform, some public officials will continue to adhere to their own private high standards of integrity but those without a strong moral compass (and there are far too many) will continue to work for their own benefit rather than that of South Carolina’s citizens.”
Fortunately, time caught up with the legislature and it has nudged toward reform, in part because of a continuing drumbeat by Gov. Nikki Haley for more transparency. (Interestingly, some are wondering why Merrill has been indicted for things that sound similar to what Haley was accused of as a House member, but given a pass on.)
In June 2016, state legislators took two big forward steps in updating ethics laws when they transformed the state Ethic Commission into a truly independent agency that now can investigate state lawmakers for possible improprieties. Previously, that function was left to House or Senate ethics committees. Also, legislators approved measures to require members to disclose sources of private income, a long-sought reform to promote transparency.
But they didn’t deal with so-called unreported “dark money” in which millions of dollars of contributions from donors attempting to influence elections go to “leadership” political action committees and other organizations.
State legislators have a lot on their plates when they return to Columbia. They desperately need to fix the state’s bridges, roads and dams. They have underfunded education for years, creating inequities that are shameful. They expected a better return from pension investments than was economically prudent and now are billions in the hole.
While those things have to be dealt with, they must also fix state ethics laws to restore public confidence in government. That starts with stronger ethics rules and a culture of integrity at the Statehouse.
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We Can Do Better, South Carolina!
Our venerable state cannot get out of its own way. It’s as if change is a bad word and something that smells of limit on behavior is not going to happen. Indeed these folks have operated so long beyond the reach of the law and the result is that many who are there to line their pockets instead of looking our for what is best and doing the right thing.
Sadly, it is an imbedded culture at the Capitol that they individually and jointly refuse to address. It’s as if they don’t welcome scrutiny for fear of the obvious. It is somewhat remarkable that the law and order, conservative, Christian, Republicans are the leaders in all things that can be done for a colossal amounts of money. The Big Loser is AG Wilson who did everything in his power to protect his people.
We refuse to fix roads under the misguided efforts of a largely ineffective governor who now is on to the United Nations (my goodness) who set her own standard for thievery when she shook down Lexington Medical Center and Wilbur Smith for a large amount of money for which she has never been held accountable. That was the standard and will remain the standard until we get some good and honest folks who will do their jobs as custodians of the public good.